NATURAL LOVIN’

The Fifth Sunday of Lent, commonly called Passion Sunday

I’ve been reading the Gospel of St Mark this Lent. It’s the oldest of the four Gospels and the most stark. The Greek is often unsophisticated and inelegant, but there is power in its blunt, straightforward approach. A very early tradition about the Gospel claims it’s the work of John Mark, a disciple of St Peter the Apostle, and that the stories it enshrines are those St Mark heard from St Peter himself.

One of the striking characteristics of the Gospel of Mark is its depiction of the Apostles in general and of St Peter in particular. They all are shown as uncomprehending both the teaching of Jesus and of His ultimate mission. Three times—in the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters—the Lord tells His disciples that He is going to Jerusalem, where He will be betrayed to His enemies, handed over to the Romans who will kill Him and on the third day rise from the dead.

Each of these statements is met with confusion by the Apostles. The first time, St Mark tells us, Peter took Jesus to task. St Mark says “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning and seeing His disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan! You have set your mind on the things of men, not of God.” Later, Jesus repeats His prophecy. The disciples, St Mark says, “did not understand His words, and were afraid to ask Him.” Shortly before they enter Jerusalem where Jesus’ words will be fulfilled, He tells them again what is to happen. Nobody says anything in response. They just don’t know what to make of it all.

If we recall St Mark’s Gospel is really the Gospel according to St Peter, the remarks are all the more telling. The tradition of Apostolic Ignorance and Incomprehension comes from the Leader of the Apostles. “We had no idea what He was talking about.” It’s Peter who first tells us the story of his three-fold denial of Jesus, while His Master is standing on trial.

If we put ourselves in the place of the Lord’s disciples, would we be as ignorant and slow—“setting our minds on the things of men, not of God?” Depend on it. We do it all the time. At our best, we usually fail to understand Jesus, much less live up to His words. Please understand I speak as one who sees this failure over and over in my life.

St Peter “rebuked” Jesus when He first announced His death and resurrection because he loved Him. He loved Him like a friend, with a friend’s natural affections. All His disciples did.

Our natural affections, our likings and lovings, are just that—based in our natures. Our love, our hate and our indifference spring from who we are. We love those who love us and ignore those who hate us. If somebody is kind to us, we usually reciprocate. Our normal response is to attack those who attack us. And so the world spins on, gracelessly, to oblivion.

Jesus said to St Peter—and to us—“you set your minds on the things of men.” He was calling them—and ultimately in each of their lives (except that of Judas) He brought them—to a love and affection beyond the natural. St Peter was able to “tell on himself,” reveal his blindness, because he finally came to see. There is a life—a love—beyond the natural one we most live. God calls us to live, not naturally, but supernaturally.

That doesn’t mean we can see ghosts and get a cable TV show. It means we are meant to live “above our natures,” live a life beyond that of the rank and file. St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest medieval theologian, said “Grace perfects nature.” God takes the best in us, our natural loves and affections, and refines them. He purifies them and transfigures natural affection to supernatural love.

Brother Lawrence, the seventeenth-century monk, gives us an insight into “setting our minds on the things of God” in his small but invaluable book, The Practice of the Presence of God. He says “God often permits us to suffer a little to purify our souls and oblige us to stay close to Him." He doesn’t extol suffering, but he sees it as an opportunity “to stay close to God.” "God has many ways of drawing us to Himself," Lawrence says. Following Jesus along the Way of the Cross can be a gift, if we have the eyes of faith, which St Peter finally came to see with.

None of us needs to seek out suffering. “Sufficient unto the day,” the Lord said, “is the evil thereof.” Suffering will come unbidden—to us and to those we love. The Way of the Cross, the way of pain and suffering, can be a way of torture and sorrow, or a way of Grace, a way that calls us “to stay close to Him.” Which way it ends up isn’t left to us alone. We don’t just “think good thoughts” or try to have a “positive mental attitude.” The Gospel isn’t a Do-It-Yourself panacea. It’s the way of prayer. The more we live with Christ, the more we seek Him in prayer and take His life into ours through the Sacraments, the more we “set our minds on the things of God.”

Through these brief days of Passiontide, when suffering comes, to you or to those you love, make yours the words of St Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

The Gospel sometimes seems stark and inelegant, but to those who follow it, it is full of unexpected power.